Pigmy Coho Wood Kit Sailyak (video)

Hi everyone,
I'm just nearing the end of a project and being a sailing newbie, I made a video that I welcome your comments on what I've done, or suggestions for improvements.

It is essentially a summary of the rigging and an explanation of what I've done to modify it. I'm really excited to sail it!

This is my blog post about it

Just the YouTube Video

 

Looks like fun. I would like to see it on the water.

A couple of thoughts: I would suggest doing everything you can to simplify the sailing rig, perhaps going to a fully battened sail with out a boom (boom less rig).

There other thought was your side "decks", I would make them larger so you have more room to move around, or take on passengers. Or perhaps a trampoline type fabric "deck".

Make sure your center/side board is strong enough to take the lateral forces from the sail, it has to counteract the side forces of the sail and if it is not sturdy it will fail when on a hard reach or pointing high to the wind. Same is true for the rudder, it takes a pretty heavy twisting action is the side load is down low on the blade of the rudder.

Good luck, hope to see it on the water soon.

 

Thanks for your thoughts. The centerboard and it's attachment is quite sturdy, but the rudder worries me. It has the same attachment to the kayak as the original rudder.

 

Well, here is the video of the maiden voyage. enjoy!

http://alejandroerickson.com/joomla...maiden-voyage-for-my-newly-rigged-pygmy-coho-

I'm throwing in the text from the blog too
FINALLY!

Not much to say about this moment except that I've been dreaming about it for a year now and it's finally happened.

I'm adding some text to make this more searchable, but the fun is my giddiness in the video. I bought the Pygmy Coho kayak with the pontoons (ammas?) in Campbell River, BC, one day because I found it while I was in Victoria looking for a desk on Craigslist. I took $1500 out in cash and jumped in a rental car (which they upgraded to an SUV for free, thank GOD, because I have no clue how I would have put all that stuff on top of a Neon) and drove 3 hours, just to see if I wanted the thing. I handed the guy $1300 and took it home.

After using it as a kayak for a while, I sailed the rig it came with and decided it was mediocre at best. I wanted a REAL sailing rig, with a jib, cable stays and a BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (You noticed her conspicuous absence in the video). The necessary condition for BW is to have places for both of us to sit, so rather than wasting my efforts looking for BW, I installed benches. I expect BW to appear shortly .

Long story short, I got a free sail, boarded with a shipwright for a few days, learnt to sail, learnt about rigs, learnt about "boat dollars" and learnt about the sailing bug. Now I'm out of boat dollars, but I've got the bug and, fortunately, a sailboat (if you can call it that) as well!

If you want to know more about the boat, see this post about how I rigged it. Incidentally, if you get into sailing, you'll run into all kinds of people with extra gear to trade, sell or give away. Everybody is friendly because they are all doing what they want to be doing .

 

I love it! I bet it would really move in a good blow.

The best sailboats are ones you scrounge together, you do not have too much invested and you can always keep experimenting with it because do do not feel bad about tearing it apart and trying something different. Since the wind blows for free it is one of the best bang for the buck I can think of, you waste a lot of time feeling like you actually accomplished something worthwhile.

That is way I think messing about with boats is the best way to waste time, and if you can do it inexpensively, than so much the better.